Dune: Resurrection
by The Deacon
Summary: Set shortly after the events in Chapterhouse. A new Duncan Idaho ghola has been created who sees visions of Paul.
1. Book One: Awakening

I think we all know that I don't own Dune or any of the characters in it which were created by Frank Herbert. That said lets get on with it.  
  
Duncan's hair billowed in the dry air as Paul's 'thopter speed away towards the storm. Paul and Jessica would be safe; he knew it inherently. House Atreides would live on. He exchanged a quick glance with Kines, both knowing that their sacrifice could save Arrakis.  
  
Duncan looked back towards the billowing smoke pouring into the sky above the shield wall, from Arrakeen.  
  
This is not the end of the Atreides.  
  
As the Sardukar descended upon Duncan's position, he knew that the Emperor's plot would fail.  
  
Duncan watched the Fremen warriors around him, what fierce fighters they were. If only there had been more time. The Sardukar were falling dead all around, but even the Fremen could not hope to match such overwhelming numbers.  
  
Unsheathing his Crysknife, Duncan ran into the battle shouting, "Long live House Atreides!"  
  
Duncan winced in pain as a Sardukar's knife buried itself in the small of his back.  
  
"The slow blade penetrates the shield," his lips mouthed the words as the masses of Sardukar ran past his falling lifeless body.  
  
Time stretched on for an eternity in Duncan's mind. He saw himself living again and dying a thousand times.   
  
The massive worm body with a human face of Leto II crushing him in a fit of rage…  
  
Five thousand years of the Tyrant's "Golden Path."   
  
Countless years of the Bene Gesserit…  
  
Fish Speakers… Ixians… Sardukar… Honored Matres… and the Tleilaxu. Duncan saw his death at the hands of every major power in the universe. He glimpsed for a moment the worms now spread throughout the universe in the second scattering of the Bene Gesserit, a pearl of the Tyrant's awareness in each, and Sheena whom they all obeyed.   
  
In the instant of his death on Arrakis, Duncan saw the span of his own lifetimes, the entire net stretching out before him into the farthest reaches of time, no end to his consciousness. Finally images resolved into one figure. Paul stood before him, clothed in the robe he had last been seen in before wandering into the desert. Paul's empty eye sockets stared at him.  
  
"You left me on Dune."  
  
  
  
  
"Something is wrong," the voice came from an Ixian scientist, with several noticeable cybernetic implants protruding from his face.   
  
"This is absolutely normal. I assure you Dr. Galen," a young Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother standing on the other side of the room.  
  
"She's right Galen," this one was Tleilaxu, "Our technique is perfect." He didn't sound so sure.  
  
The Reverend Mother noted this sentiment and stored it away for further analysis. She resisted the urge to slap down the Tleilaxu with a comment about the flaw in believing anything could be perfect.  
  
The three watched as their new Duncan Idaho Ghola began to spasm again. He was strapped to table in the center of the darkened room. The Ixian machines that surrounded him gradually grew silent; their work now completed.  
  
Former Reverend Mother Alicia Norvina suppressed a shudder she felt coming from her other memory. Voices from the Bene Gesserit past spoke volumes of the dangers of intrusting the future to the Ixian machines. Too late to heed their advice now, after leaving the sisterhood to pursue this, she wasn't sure their words could save her now anyway.  
  
"His awakening is complete, all vital signs appear normal," Galen spoke absently as he stared into the readouts on the screens in front of him.  
  
"You see Doctor, everything is fine, as Alicia and I said it would be," Clicks, the Tleilaxu Face-Dancer grinned in the triumph of his assessment.  
  
Galen turned to face him, his cybernetic eye audibly clicking into focus, "The technology is sound, Clicks, this ghola worries me though. Idaho was know for is unpredictability in life, we should be no less cautious with him in death. Especially when our theories on the artificial awakening are unproven"  
  
Alicia watched the conversation stoically as always. It was a dangerous partnership into which she had entered, full of too many unstable elements. The Idaho ghola moved slightly.  
  
Galen spun around to face his screens again; "He's regaining consciousness."  
  
Duncan's eyes fluttered as he adjusted quickly to the dim light. He flexed slightly, testing the binds that held him to the table. Images of Arrakis lingered in his mind, the Sardukar sweeping over the dunes like locusts.  
  
"Paul!" he shouted before he could stop himself.  
  
"Residual memory ingrams, from artificial awakening," Galen's assessment carried no emotion.  
  
Idaho immediately recognized the familiar sound of mentat projection. His eyes darted across the room to the Reverend Mother.  
  
"I am Alicia Norvina, Duncan. We are responsible for giving you back your memories."  
  
"Some things are better left forgotten."  
  
Dr. Galen was still pouring over his readouts, as Clicks whispered in his ear, "If you are right, then we must dispose of him quickly. The enhanced Prana Bindu reflexes we have given him would enable him to kill us all."  
  
Duncan heard these words, but made no outward sign of it. If he were to survive this he would have to lead them to believe that he was a normal ghola. Even as he had this thought he saw behind Alicia the fleeting image of Paul walking away from him down the corridor.  
  
"I think our experiment was a success, Dr. Galen," Alicia spoke with a far away tone to her voice. Something was strange here, but they didn't have time to create another ghola. She had to keep Clicks and Galen thinking everything was all right, and hope that it was.  
  
Alicia removed the straps holding Duncan to the table. He sat up and carefully surveyed his surroundings. Looking towards the corridor, he heard Paul's voice very faintly.  
  
"You left me on Dune." 


	2. 

"I fear I may have unleashed a force that will destroy us all."  
-Journal of Alicia Norvina  
  
  
  
Dr. Galen was still pouring over numerous indecipherable readouts that flashed on the screens which surrounded him at a mind-numbing speed. He did not spare Alicia so much as a stray glance as she entered the room.  
  
"He's asleep, as far as any of us can be certain."   
  
Alicia noticed immediately how Clicks' body relaxed as she uttered the words. He was afraid, but perhaps I am as well, she thought. Galen still hadn't acknowledged her presence.  
  
He's the most dangerous of us all. His attentiveness to detail is the very thing that makes him blind to it.  
  
Galen finally turned to face them, the noise of his mechanical eye echoed through the otherwise silent room. His expressions were nearly impossible to read. Between the cybernetic implants, and his naturally detached stoicism, Galen was a statue. Alicia had therefore only been able to base her analysis of him on his actions and speech, of which there wasn't much.  
  
"I have found an anomaly," Galen's voice was empty as usual. The only emotion that could be detected in him was his ever-present pessimism. He quickly pressed a few keys on the pad to his right and motioned for Alicia to watch the screen.  
  
Before her she saw the room in which they were now standing, as it had been nearly six hours ago, with Duncan lying strapped to the table, Alicia standing in front of him. Galen slowed the tape to a near stop and zoomed in on Duncan's eyes, the view of which was blocked for a moment as Norvina reached across him to unbuckle the straps. Galen slowed the tape even more, as the momet wish he had wished them to see approached. Duncan's eyes, which had been following Norvina, suddenly shifted position and focus, then stared at some point outside the view of the monitor. Galen paused the tape, then rotated the image, and zoomed to display a view through the door into the hallway beyond.  
  
"This is where I have determined his eyes to have been focused. It is interesting to note that he is not staring at the wall or doorway, but that his eyes are instead focused on some point between the two."  
  
For a moment, Alicia thought she detected a hint of excitement in Galen's voice, perhaps pride in his accomplishment.  
  
"So what was he looking at?" Clicks' question while intended to indicate to the others his presence and awareness of the situation which was no longer dependant on his active participation, had the unplanned effect of focusing more attention on Dr. Galen who was quickly becoming the superior force in the room.  
  
This cannot take place. I must retain control of this situation or we will all die here.  
  
The former reverend mother answered Clicks' question before Galen had the opportunity to further assert his authority. "We could use the scanner to read the retinal imprint on the back of Duncan's eye."  
  
Galen saw immediately what was happening in the room. He could feel the shifting balance of power in the air around him. The bickering was pointless. As the only one capable of operating the Ixian equipment, Galen was indispensable, and everyone knew it.  
  
"That could take time. The scanners are quite good, but an enormous amount of precision would be required to do what you're asking. I suggest that we devote part of the computer system to complete a spectrographical analysis of the location at which Duncan was staring: infrared, molecular movement tree, spatial magnetism. These scans could be done in a few hours. In the mean time I could make preparations for a retinal imprint scan."  
  
Alicia heard no real bid for power in his speech, and reasoned that arguing with him would only weaken her position.   
  
"Keep me informed of your progress, Galen."   
  
Alicia turned and quickly left the room. Upon passing through the doorway, she had to suppress the urge to shudder as she felt the temperature decrease by at least three degrees. If either Clicks or Galen had noticed her hesitation, they made no sign of it. As she began to proceed, the plasteel walls melted around her to be replaced by the dry rock of an ancient Fremen sietch. All around her Alicia heard a million voices chanting one name.  
  
"Maud'Dib. Maud'Dib."  
  
The vision faded, as Alicia tried to regain her composure and continue down the dimly lit hallway.  
  
What have I awakened in trying to save our future?  
  
Somewhere from the ancient recesses of her other memory, Alicia heard a faint voice cry out.  
  
"My son has come to reclaim the future, and you with it."  



	3. 

"Letting the sayings of other memory warp our sense of reality is often the first and final step towards madness."  
-Bene Gesserit saying  
  
  
Duncan awoke in a dark room. As he sat up, he quickly assessed the surroundings. His quarters were barren of in furniture except for the cot he had been sleeping on. From his innate sense of time, he determined that he had slept for nearly ten hours, but without knowing what time of day it had been when he had first become conscious after his exodus from the Tleilaxu tank, it was impossible to know weather it was light or dark outside.   
  
From the familiar vibrations of distant machinery, Duncan had determined that he was in a rather large no-ship. He also realized that the safety that had previously been afforded by remaining in the confines of a no-ship no longer existed. It was painfully obvious to anyone who bothered to examine the recent battle between the sisterhood and honored matres, that the young Teg ghola had the ability to see the no-ships.  
  
Even though Teg had escaped with Sheena, Scytale, and the other Duncan ghola, it would only be a matter of time before the sisterhood developed another ghola with Teg's abilities.  
  
"The other Idaho ghola…" Duncan murmured as a sudden wave of realization crept over him.  
  
The other ghola's cells could not possibly have been incorporated in his creation, and yet Each held the other's memories. Even though not seeing it directly, Duncan knew immediately the mind of the other ghola. He saw the net stretching out between them connecting each ghola in an unbroken chain.  
  
Below the net Duncan saw a rose garden attended by an old woman wearing an apron stained with earth and other evidences of her labor. The woman seemed to stare right back at him as Duncan turned his gaze upward and saw the blackened and charred remains of Dune.  
  
The entire vision swirled around him as the drab gray walls surrounding him were replaced by the open expanse of desert. Ahead of him stood Paul surround by his Fedaykin guards. Paul's empty eye sockets burned with an inner fire as he turned to face Duncan.  
  
Though Paul's mouth did not move, the ground trembled with his voice, "The future is in your hands Duncan. Return my eyes to Dune."  
  
Duncan turned back and saw two figures standing in the rose garden. The old woman had collapsed to her knees and was crying softly. A man stood beside her with a stubby gray beard wearing a straw hat holding his left arm above his head as if reaching out to Duncan from across space and time.  
  
Duncan sank back into his cot, Paul's words ringing in his ears.  
  
"Return my eyes to Dune."  
  
The voice was replaced by the ghostly chanting of the Fedaykin, "Maud'dib, Maud'dib, Maud'dib…" as he slipped back into unconsciousness.  
  
  
  
Galen looked up from his screens for the first time in hours and motioned for Clicks to come over. "Where is the witch?" he asked as his eye adjusted to focus for Clicks' movement.  
  
"I assume she is asleep."   
  
Clicks noted that there was no vehemence in Galen's voice when he had called her 'the witch' he had merely been searching for a term that lined up with the Ixians ancestral memories of the Bene Gesserit. As one of the great schools of thought after the Butlerian Jihad, the Bene Gesserit had spit in the face of Ixian technology for millennia while still becoming steadily dependent on it.  
  
"My scans show nothing out of the ordinary in the hallway while Duncan was staring at it, however when the reverend mother left the room, the temperature in her immediate area dropped nearly ten degrees with no explanation. And, a just a few moments ago the humidity in the ghola's room dropped to near zero with no explanation returning to normal soon after."  
  
Clicks nodded silently. Something was happening indeed. Before he could voice his opinion, Clicks was nearly thrown to the floor as the deck shook violently beneath him. A new deep rumble alerted him to the fact that the no-ship was no longer sitting peacefully on the planet's surface. The deck shook once more then stopped as the ship entered foldspace.  
  



	4. 

Since the Butlerian Jihad, each society has sought its own way to maintain perfect records: the Ixians with their recording machines, the Bene Gesserit and the Mentats with superior mental abilities, and more recently the Bene Tleilaxu with their gholas. The Bene Gesserit learned in time that memory was as inconsistent as any other form of record keeping. This is a lesson the Tleilaxu have yet to learn.  
  
-Bene Gesserit Cultural Analyses  
  
  
Bellonda hurried through the halls of the archives. It was not that she assigned any special importance to the task that Murbella had currently assigned her to, she simply wished to be done with it and move on. It was so hard for her to think of this honored matre whore as mother superior. In the instant of Odrade's death, Bellonda's entire world had become separated into tasks that must be hurriedly completed so as to move on to the next task.  
  
Chapterhouse was swarming with the whores being trained in Bene Gesserit techniques. The extinction of the Sisterhood through the natural course of battle would have been a superior alternative to this cultural assimilation, Bell thought. The powers that be… So much in that ancient expression, and yet only a fraction of what would be lost if Murbella's gamble failed to pay off.  
  
As much as she feared to admit it, Reverend Mother Alicia Norvina's defection and theft of a Duncan Idaho embryo, might be the salvation of the sisterhood. Though Bellonda couldn't see the motives behind it, Alicia's private rebellion made a certain sense. Alicia was a direct descendant of the Kwisatz Mother, Anirul, who presided over the breeding program in the final days of the old empire.  
  
Bell glanced at a monitor to her left and saw in it a young Duncan Idaho training within the confines of a no-room. At least they weren't keeping him in a ship this time. Hindsight always reveals the most obvious mistakes. The sisterhood had only learned of Miles Teg's ability to see no ships after he had fled with the previous Idaho ghola, and only imagined Duncan's flight when the ship had left the ground.  
  
Seven years had been lost; more would be lost before their plans would be back on track. While the Sisterhood was rapidly teaching the countless honored matres to protect from the outside enemy, the structure of the known universe was crumbling from the inside.  
  
Bell opened the door before her and walked onto the practice floor, greeted by the smiling face of a young Duncan Idaho with a slightly smaller Miles Teg standing beside him. The air smelled of the sweat worked up by the two young sparing partners.  
  
"Mother Superior, has requested the presence of the two of you."  
  
Duncan perked up, "Is it about our memories?"  
  
"I don't believe so."  
  
The three-year-old Teg pulled on Duncan's shirtsleeve to get his attention then whispered in his ear. It was a pointless gesture, even at this early age Teg knew that the com-eyes could hear everything that was said, but he did it anyway. It was his way of paying homage to a simpler time that was locked away in the recesses of his mind.  
  
Duncan nodded in agreement to Teg's silent comment, then smiled sweetly at Bellonda. In the most prim and proper tone of voice his young vocal cords could muster, he stated simply, "If our presence is requested, we will of course be prompt in providing it."  
  
Teg seemed to be suppressing a giggle. Bellonda suddenly felt overwhelmed with discomfort, and remembered once again her stern objections to the idea of bringing these two up together. These were dangerous times indeed.  
  
  
***  
  
  
Murbella stood behind a technician seated in front of a screen showing Teg whispering to Duncan. After manipulating the controls for nearly five minutes the technician confirmed Murbella's earlier suspicions.  
  
"He didn't say anything, he didn't make any noise at all, and his lips didn't move."  
  
Murbella pondered this for a few seconds then left the control center and returned to her quarters to prepare for her meeting with these two gholas. The technician was left with no explanation for Teg's behavior; there was no reason.   
  
  
  



End file.
